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Monday, June 30, 2008

My Swap Swap Gals package arrived today. This was a secret swap this month, so I had no idea who was sending the swap to me. I was thrilled to see the package was from Katrina! She is a super talented seamstress and sent the most amazing bag! The theme was favorite colors...mine are blue, green, pink, and brown and this purse had all those colors.

This bag is big enough to be a tote or a project bag. I love big purses...they're my weakness. A purse can never be too big. She also sent two skeins of Caron Simply Soft.

Thank you so so much Katrina! I absolutely love it!!

edited to add: I've been trying to upload the pics I took to blogger, but it keeps telling me it can't upload due to an internal error. You can see pics of the bag at Katrina's blog until I get my pictures loaded.

I finally got the picture added! Blogger is still being a bugger though and I can't seem to get more on though.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Pi saw this ice cream cone over at Blah Blah Blahhging and fell in love. She's in full summer mode and nothing says summer more than ice cream. This little guy whipped up in about an hour. Pi wanted a face on the ice cream part, even though I think it would have looked better on the cone part. Either way, he's cute. I'll be making more flavors for her soon.

Pi was also digging the Tiny Teddies pattern from the May issue of Crochet Today. I made him a little bigger than the pattern called for but other than that I think he's pretty close to the one in the magazine.

Both amis were made with Caron pounder in pink. The white on the teddy is Red Heart and I have no clue what the brown is. Its old yarn from years ago.

Wonder when my ami streak will end? I need to do a wearable or something soon. But this weekend is CRW weekend! I've got some errands to run today (laundry, boooooo) but every moment that I'm home, I'll be working on it.

Laura, I had no idea Lion Brand was going to open a place in Union Square. When my job moves to West 4th street next year, I'll be really close! Woohoo! Thanks for the headsup.

Thanks for the offers to move in with some of you. You guys rock! Laura, the 3k I mentioned IS just for first month's rent and security, so that was my low-ball figure. If we found a place through a real estate agent, it would be $4,500 instead. I love NY but not its apartment prices.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Things at work haven't slowed down just yet. There's been other work drama involving two-faced people, but I won't get into that further. Also, my apartment is a disaster...I wish we could move when our lease is up in September, but there's no way we can come up with 3k for fees/security to move into a new place by then. Who's got a fee free apartment for us to rent? Anyone? Bueller? It was worth a shot.

I'm physically and emotionally drained.

Anyhoo...I've been working on finishing my June charity project and swap while riding back and forth on the subway. They're all in the mail!

June's charity is a firehouse in SC that gives out firebears to children who have lost their homes due to a fire. These bears were fun to make. I wish I'd had more time to make more. The pattern can be found at freepatterns.com under the toy section.

I also worked up 3 six inch squares for Lesa'a daughter's blanket. I found the pattern on Ravelry, but can't find the link. Why didn't I put it in my que? *headdesk* As soon as I find the link, I'll put it up.

Ooh, ooh before I forget, check out my freecycle score! A lady was giving away a really old sewing machine that she barely used. Its the Singer Fashion Mate 237. She said it works great and is really sturdy. This is a great way for me to get my feet wet with sewing without making a big financial committment. I've ordered the manual from Singer and am patiently waiting (stalking the mailman) for it to arrive. I heart freecycle.

My Swap Swap Girls package also went out in the mail today. I am so excited to show you what I made! One of the patterns I found is a real gem and will be on my Christmas to-do list for sure.

Come hell or high water, I am not working OT this weekend, so this weekend is going to be totally devoted to the CRW. Hopefully I'll get a bit closer to the finish line. I like the idea Jen had for a slideshow of my progress. Once its all done, I'm going to see if I can figure that one out.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

I was going to take Piper to Build a Bear today as a reward for all A's all school-year long...

I was going to dedicate this weekend to the Cathedral Rose Window...

I was going to sleep in this morning...

But alas, as I was on my way out the door at work on Thursday night, I was informed that there was a "very important project" to be started on Friday. In actuality, this project is pointless, yet had me working until 10 pm on Friday and all day today, Saturday.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Here's our first green pepper. Its still a baby, but exciting nonetheless.

Cucumbers are starting to grow too. We've got quite a few of these blooming.

The grape tomato plant is the most exciting of them all. We've got about 25 grape tomatos growing right now. Hubby is happy...he loves grape tomatoes.

Last but not least are the regular tomatoes. We've got about 3 of these growing.

Last week, hubby discovered that a small area in our yard actually had some good soil, so we planted some more veggies. We're curious to see how these will turn out since they're not in pots. Hubby planted corn, carrots, red bell peppers, and more tomatoes. He also planted sunflowers in a separate area. I hope those grow since sunflowers are my favorite flower.

Monday, June 16, 2008

I didn't work on my CRW at all this weekend. I just wasn't in the mood for all that afghan-on-my-lap action. I worked on small projects instead. Pi finishes school tomorrow and I wanted to give her teacher a little something. She's been a good teacher and really got Piper into tip-top shape as far as handwriting and organization.

But what do you make for a nun?

Pi told me that Sr. Mary is a fan of stuffed frogs and has quite a few in the classroom, including Frankie, a stuffed frog that went home with each child at some point during the year. I found some great frog patterns but I only had a small ball of green, so I decided to wing a small one. He's just about 3" tall.

His head is a little big but I like him like this. I want to tweak him a bit before writing up the pattern to make his eyes a bit smaller and his front legs a little longer so he'll sit easier. I'll also use lighter green next time so his features are easier to see. Even with the imperfections, I like him.

Sr. Mary also likes writing, so I made a flower pen and bought a notepad to go with it. The stem and backing are from Planet June's daffodil pattern and the flower is from Crochet Pattern Central. Pi says the pen is ugly. She might be right.

I also made a thread bookmark. Its my first thread project...wootwoot! I used THIS pattern. I didn't have the right hook size so I just used the smallest I had. Since it was bigger than what was called for, I only made the middle as per the pattern and just made shells around for a border. Its far from perfect, but I'm thrilled I worked with thread. I coated it with an equal parts glue/water mixture to harden it a bit. It dried with a nice sturdy finish.

We also got her a small gift card to Borders. She's a big reader and we thought it was a nice way to treat her. Its not much, but we wanted to express our thanks.

I also worked on my swap project for this month. My swap partner doesn't know who she is, so I can't even say her name. Sneaky sneaky!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

I was ROAKed today! My wishlist is pretty old...from last October I believe and my ROAK group hasn't been active in awhile so I was really surprised to find a package waiting for me.

My anonymous fairy godmother sent me a whole load of goodies and pretty much cleared out my wishlist! She sent me 3 skeins of Moda Dea Tutu yarn, an afghan hook, a yard of frog fleece, homemade soap, bathsalts, and gel, a soap scrubbie, an 8" square for a friendshipghan (my first one!), and stickers for Pi! I feel so spoiled. Thank you so much FGM!

I went through some pics on my camera and found a project I'd done a few weeks ago, but had forgotten to post. I made the Berry Bag from CrochetMe. This was a super fast project. Instead of using white beads for the seeds, I just embroidered with black yarn.

The bag opens to be a market shopping bag. I used acrylic, so it stretches alot more than I had anticipated. That's ok, it'll fit a whole butt load of stuff. In this pic, its stuffed with 2 caron pounders and 10 granny squares.

Don't mind my pajamas. I didn't feel like changing for the pic and since they're sweats, you can tell it was in much cooler weather than we're having now.

The heatwave has supposedly broken. Its not 98 but today was still close to 90. Still too hot for my taste. We had a huge thunderstorm last night. I was amazed at the amount of hail we got....one of the biggest storms I've seen. Fall weather...are you coming back soon?

Sunday, June 8, 2008

True to my word, I've been working on the CRW pretty regularly. I started the popcorn row yesterday morning but it got too hot around 10am to continue. I didn't sleep well last night, so I was up by 6:30 this morning and was able to finish the popcorn row. Good thing too because its really heating up outside.

This is what it looked like last time:

This is what it looks like now! Sorry the pics are dark. Its difficult to get good lighting especially in the morning. The sun doesn't shine into the apartment until later in the day.

It measure 62" across. To get a picture of it, I need to stand on top of my bed and hold the camera high. Otherwise, it'd never all fit in the shot. I've also made 20 of the last 32 heptagons. I'm so close to being done I can almost taste it! I'm pretty certain I can finish by July.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

I've just returned from a girl scout meeting, threw the child into the shower and then bed. Suffice to say I'm tired enough that I can't think of a better title for this entry. Le sigh.

Anyhoo, Mickey #6 came and went. Apparently, our membership to the mouse of the month club was only lasped for a month...how relieving (/sacasm)! I do sort of feel bad for how he died though. He got his face stuck in the trap. Looks like he crawled on and then backed up a bit when he realized what was going on, but it was too late. Mice without faces = nastiness. I have pictures but will spare you (if you really want to see, email me).

Onto fun things. Hope you're not sick of ami's yet (told you I was in a phase). Pi asked me to make the monkey from the Amigurumi Animals book by Annie Obaachan, which I'd taken out of the library. He's about 5" tall, made with RHSS, and an I hook. Pi liked him so much in the tree, she's left him there.

I also tested a money holding tooth for MomCrochets at Crochetville. Introducing Timmy the Tooth. This guy was made with less than an ounce of RHSS and a G hook...in less than an hour!

(that's $10 but Pi only gets $2 per tooth unless the dentist pulls it. It was the only bill willing to model for me).

I promise that you won't be seeing anymore amis for a little while. Not that my kick is quite over, but because I've run out of stuffing.

On Saturday, girl scouts are taking a trip to Home Depot to learn how to make a wooden boat. Please pray I won't lose a finger somehow!

Monday, June 2, 2008

More testing! I've had ami fever this past week and testing patterns has given me the ami fix I need. LovelyLovely (Amy) over at Crochetville let me test her pattern called Farah the Fat Fairy.

(sorry the pic is a bit bright)

She's about 8" tall in the sitting position. I used an F hook and regular old RHSS. I especially like the use of the "head hat" which allows the hair to stand a bit taller and not create bald spots underneath the ponytail. Overall, it was a fun pattern.